Models of Political Representation in South Korea: Empirical Analyses for the 17th and 18th National Assemblies

This article explores which models of political representation have worked in representative democracy in South Korea and which factors exert an impact on models of political representation. To this end, using surveys of members of the 17th and 18th National Assemblies, this article first classifies models of representation depending on the primary considerations that guide representatives when voting on legislative bills. Next, the article conducts multinomial logistic regression to test which factors influence different models of representation. The empirical findings show that a policy position of a political party, the interests of constituents, and the beliefs of a representative influence the partisan, delegate, and trustee models, respectively. This implies that there are various styles of representation, meaning that representative democracy does not operate under a particular model of representation in South Korea.